Community Groups

About groups

The Planned Giving Design Center Community is comprised of groups of non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations serving the planned giving sector, and publishers delivering the latest in philanthropic news and opinion.

Available groups

The primary mission of Planned Giving Design Center, LLC is to develop products and services for the charitable gift and estate planning industry that assist others in their efforts to increase philanthropy.

I provide highly personalized tax and estate planning counsel to families, with some relationships spanning decades into the next generation of those families.

As chair of my law firm's charitable sector practice, I represent foundations, donors and charities in negotiation and drafting of gift agreements to establish endowments, construct facilities and fund programs, including provisions covering restrictions on the use of funds, conditions to performance obligations and donor recognition through naming opportunities.

Dennis Walsh, CPA serves as a volunteer consultant to religious workers and exempt organizations, focusing on financial management, legal compliance, and organizational development. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he completed the Duke University certificate program in nonprofit management and is a member of the North Carolina Association of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.

Randy Fox is the Editor-In-Chief of the Planned Giving Design Center. We are proud to have Randy as our guiding light on the PGDC for the field of Philanthropy.

Randy Fox is a nationally known wealth strategist, philanthropic estate planner, educator and speaker dedicated to helping individuals, professional advisors, charitable institutions and planned giving organizations do well while doing good. His collaborative approach facilitates clients’ ability to preserve and transform wealth in ways that honor their goals and passions while passing values, responsibility and stewardship ethics to their heirs. He is also currently the Illinois representative of The Charitable Giving Resource Center, a consultancy that provides tools and education for the non profit community.

Richard L. Fox, Esq. is a partner in the Philadelphia-based law firm of Dilworth Paxson LLP, where he also heads up the Philanthropic and Nonprofit practice. He concentrates his practice in the areas of charitable giving, private foundations, tax-exempt organizations, estate planning, trusts and estates, and family planning. Mr. Fox is the author of the treatise, Charitable Giving; Taxation, Planning and Strategies, a Warren, Gorham and Lamont publication, writes a national bulletin charitable giving, and writes and speaks frequently on issues pertaining to nonprofit organizations, estate planning and philanthropy.

Ron Brown has served as Director of Gift Planning at four leading charities: Princeton University, the National Wildlife Federation, United Way of America, and from January 2012 to the present, Fordham University. He serves as a Board member, a member of the Rates Committee, and chair of the Research Committee for the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA); he wrote the national Gift Annuity Survey Reports in 2014 and 2010. He is a board member of the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York and a member of the CANARAS Gift Planning Council.

Since 1992, Gary S. Shunk, Principal of Family Wealth Dynamics, has been serving multi-generational families of wealth successfully navigate the qualitative challenges of affluence. He works closely with families to address issues with distinct resonance for the wealthy, transforming conflict, poor communication and lack of trust into greater harmony, positive relationships, improved family dynamics and enhanced overall fulfillment. These favorable outcomes help affluent families lead emotionally harmonious lives in which they can make a positive impact within their family and the global community.

As one of the top estate appraisers in California, Alan advises and consults with universities, charities, brokerage firms and accounting firms in the areas of estate tax, insurance and non-cash related donations of fine art objects and insurance related financial instruments. Alan’s educational background includes degrees in Art History from The New School and Appraisal Studies from New York University, as well as advanced studies in Insurance, underwriting and financial planning. He is uniquely qualified to appraise donated life insurance policies.

Steven L. Meyers, Ph.D., is Vice President of the Center for Personalized Philanthropy at the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. Steve is a primary developer of personalized philanthropy, based on the mantra of "the right gift, for the right purpose, for the right donor."

Bruce DeBoskey, is a Colorado-based Philanthropic Strategist with The DeBoskey Group, a national consulting practice he founded to help individuals and families, businesses and foundations design and implement thoughtful philanthropic strategies and actionable plans to achieve meaningful impact for themselves and the world.

Todd Fithian is a 20 year veteran, and third generation producer in the financial services industry. Todd formed his own wealth advisory firm in Boston soon after graduating from The University of Massachusetts, then later joined forces with his late brother, Scott, in 1996 to form The Legacy Companies – a professional training, consulting and coaching organization serving financial advisors and institutions in North America and abroad. Legacy’s systems and processes are designed to enhance the critical conversations with wealth holders while providing an unforgettable client experience.

Rod Zeeb is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Heritage Institute, and co-developer of The Heritage Process.TM The Heritage Institute provides training in the discipline of Heritage Design, and professional certification in The Heritage Process.TM The Institute also conducts and distributes original research, offers mentoring, coaching and marketing support for professional advisors who wish to provide heritage design to their constituents, and provides consulting services directly to individuals and families.

When Thomas M. Hubler began his family business consulting practice in 1980, he was one of the few professionals addressing family-owned businesses in the United States. Hubler has over 35 years of experience of working with families. While a good portion of that experience has been in working with business families, at the same time he is noted for his ability for peacemaking within families. In his early career, he was a marriage and family therapist and, after receiving a Bush Fellowship in 1977, he pioneered the concept of succession planning in family owned businesses.

Though the trust is a judge-made creature of equity, the last eighty years have seen numerous rounds of uniform legislation codifying various aspects of the law of trusts, beginning with the Uniform...

The process of paralegalizing the American legal academy is now complete. It was inevitable. A course in Contracts does not a complete lawyer make. The curricular marginalization of two of the other...